Bitcoin fork loses 5% of value after suffering '51% Attack'

Bitcoin SV lost 5 percent of its price after a massive "51% Attack" that may have been an attempt to destroy the cryptocurrency.

Such attacks are executed by miners that secure cryptocurrency blockchains to overwhelm the network and reorganize the record of transactions.

The attack results in coins being double-spent and destroying their value.

In return, the miners receive tokens.

Lucas Nuzzi, a network data product manager at Coin Metrics, reported that after an attempted attack on BSV, serious hashing power was unleashed the following day and that attackers are succeeding.

The attack resulted in three versions of the bitcoin SV blockchain being mined simultaneously.

The Bitcoin Association recommends that node operators mark the fraudulent chain as invalid so the node will be returned to the chain supported by honest miners and lock the attacker’s chain out.

Bitcoin SV, itself a version of an earlier bitcoin fork called bitcoin cash, was created in November 2018 after developers disagreed over how to grow bitcoin cash.

A spokesperson for the Bitcoin Association noted that BSV is a threat to other so-called cryptocurrencies because it is doing what bitcoin was always meant to do when asked why there might be attempts to "destroy" the bitcoin fork.